Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Memphis Basketball Fans Watched the Birth of the Pastner Era Last Night in St. Louis

Last night at the Scottrade Center, University of Memphis basketball fans watched the birth of the Josh PastnerEra.

Memphis played Kansas in the regular season game (and rematch of the '08 NCAA championship),
with the Kansas edging the Tigers 57-55.

Kansas
was supposed to crush a scorched Memphis team, which has no John
Calipari as head coach, no bench-depth and no big-name talent with a
no-name coach. But the end of the game, Kansas head coach Bill Self had nothing short of relief in his eyes, as his team edged out Memphis and its wonder-boy of a coach in Pastner.

Kansas didn't look like a Number 1 team and Memphis didn't look like one unranked. Bill Self looked tense and worried on the bench while
the Memphis' young Josh Pastner, looked cool, calm and collected, pushing
his seven-man rotation hard.

When Kansas' star Sherron
Collins left the game with a cramp, the wheels began to fall off for the Jayhawks. In
32 minutes, Collins committed just two of Kansas' 21 turnovers. His
young replacements? Not so much: Tyshawn Taylor ditched the ball seven
times, Xavier Henry four. It's a question of maturity for Kansas, as it moves ahead.

On the other side, Memphis looked composed even when it
owned a field-goal percentage of 34 percent. Duke transfer and Memphis native
Elliot Williams was Mario Chalmers-esque, only to be cut short with his three-point shot at the end of the game hitting the back of the rim.

Both teams lacked offense, but the intriguing element of this new Pastner Era was a 68.8 percent free-throw percentage -- something the Tigers struggled with under Calipari.

When this game was originally pitched and arranged, it was meant to
be a titanic matchup of Number 1 versus Number 2, and billed as the rematch of the
ages. It was supposed to be a loaded Kansas team and a loaded Memphis
team going head-to-head.

But Calipari bolted for Kentucky and took his recruits with him. Memphis was
nailed by the NCAA for knowingly playing Derrick Rose after he violated
league policy having a stand-in for the ACT, something that is being
appealed, and some say the NCAA should take blame for clearing Rose to play.

The Pastner
era, for now at least, will be associated with its surprising start in St. Louis. What we know now is that this season, Memphis isn't going to fade away after last year's time in the spotlight.

Even Self, after his Jayhawks won last night, said,
"If they do not make the tournament this year I will be surprised."